Australian artist Harold Leslie Thornton (1915-2004) started his career as a sign writer, painter of facades and shop windows in Sydney, but lived and worked most of his life in Amsterdam. Traces of his work in Holland can still be seen in the Nieuwmarkt district in Amsterdam. The most famous, and still existing, example is the facade of Coffeeshop The Bulldog. Thornton gradually developed his talent as a portraitist and became known for his murals. Besides being a painter, he also acted as performer, cartoonist, poet and he wrote a – fragmented – autobiography.